Solomon Kane

For me this came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting much but was absolutely delighted by just how good Solomon Kane was.

Great acting, again a surprise, dazzling special effects and a story that was enjoyable to follow.

Good film fun :)

I found the "Solomon Kane" DVD in the local secondhand DVD store for about $2, so I bought it without knowing what it was about. Truth be told, then it was the cover that convinced me. And now having seen it I can only say wow, I have been missing out on something great.

This is a dark fantasy movie with lots of action, a deep storyline, great characters and good special effects. And I must admit that I was more than pleasantly surprised with this movie.

The story is about Solomon Kane, a man who left his past and heritage behind; a master of war, destruction and terror. His very being is cursed and is bound for Hell, and the Devil is sure to collect. But having changed his wicked ways, Solomon Kane seeks redemption, but can he find it with Hell's forces in hot pursuit?

I found the various aspects of the storyline to be interesting and nicely tied together. Director Michael J. Bassett managed to put together an interesting movie containing a good combination of action, fantasy and adventure.

James Purefoy was phenomenal in the role of Solomon Kane. I can't claim to be familiar with the work of James Purefoy prior to "Solomon Kane", but this movie sure did make a lasting impression.

"Solomon Kane" is an entertaining movie that you should watch if you enjoy the fantasy movie genre.

The film is one of those things that you immediately "feel" it is wrong. No known actors except old guys like Max von Sydow, who get a small role anyway, an almost unknown lead character and a lot of attitude, like the movie is taking itself really seriously. Most of this kind of movies end up as pretentious flops.

Solomon Kane, however, did not. It was a reasonable movie, given the low production values and the video game like story. The thing is, the people working on it obviously made an effort. Strangely enough, it seems this sort of effort is what lacks in many films these days, even high budget ones, so this lifts Solomon Kane quite a lot.

Unfortunately, the film was not great. It was, I feel, the best they could do under the circumstances, and I applaud that, though. Better than The Book of Eli, but still the same superheroy feeling.

If you took the time to find it, then you wont be disappointed with this solid, old fashioned sword and sorcery movie.

The tales of Solomon Kane have been around longer than most, the character first appearing in mass market print back in the late twenties, but they've not been filmed. Many others, borrowing from it have been filmed so you will be quite familiar with the twists and turns having seen them elsewhere. The saving grace here is that it's all done quite well. James Purefoy is every part the tortured warrior and it's good to see Max Von Sydow and the legend that is Pete Poslethwaite up on the big screen. It's a creepy, dark movie at times and the extra effort they've put into the set design and cinematography really helps to set the scene. The story nips along to a satisfying conclusion. The fight choreography is very well done and FX are good as well.

Solomon Kane I'll start by pointing out that in no way is SK a copy of Van Helsing, the media and certain unaware people have been comparing the two just due to the characters clothing resemblance like the big hat, well Solomon Kane has been wearing the big hat since he was created in 1928 as stories written in weird tales, where as the 2004 movie van helsing was the first time the character had been portrayed wearing the big hat and being a monster hunter rather than just the killer of count Dracula, if anything the 04 VH movie copied Solomon Kane, anyway moving on to the review:

I was excited about seeing this since i'm a big movie fan and enjoy reading books i was waiting with anticipation for the release, the movie started strong with a impressive fight sequence and good special effects,there was none of the shaky camera action scenes which i find ruin any action movie when you can't see whats happening, everything from the props to visuals made it a very dark and almost creepy atmosphere, although i would class it as a action/fantasy there was elements of horror thrown in too, during the middle of the film the action slows for a while but that just gave me time to appreciate the performance given by James purefoy, other than resident evil i'd never really seen him in anything but i will defend his performance as Solomon Kane since i don't think anyone else could have played the part as confidently as him, supporting cast wise they mostly perform well.

There was a few continuity issues with the fact that Solomon never seemed to run out of single shot pistols and even if he'd thrown one at someone or something he always had both a sword and dagger but along with a few other things i must say that i did enjoy watching this and if you're a fan of the genre then i recommend a watch.

over all i give Solomon Kane 7 out of 10